Let me tell you why Stephenie Meyer has talent.

Yes, Twi-haters, Stephenie Meyer has talent. So does Jackie Collins. So does James Patterson, and Harold Robbins, and all those writers who pump out terrible sex-and-shopping paperbacks with Fabio and a wind machine on the cover. Having talent is very different, you see, from being a good writer.

Stephen King, a fellow who has certainly been accused of publishing dreck in his day, once defined writing talent thus (paraphrased):

“If you write a book, if someone buys that book and pays you for it with a check that doesn't bounce, and if you cash that check and use it to pay the light bill, then you have talent.”

Writing might be a calling, but it is also a business – and if you write something that people want to buy, then you have succeeded. You might be the world's worst wordsmith, but you still managed to reach out and touch something in people you never even met, something that made them haul out their wallet and hand you money in exchange for the experience.

“Read great literature,” most aspiring writers are told. “Read the good stuff, so you know what great writing really is.” Valuable advice – but don't just read the good stuff. Read the popular stuff, good or bad, and try to figure out why it's popular. These are authors who have figured something out: what audiences want, and how to supply it. Figure that out, and perhaps you too can be laughing your way to the bank.

Stephenie Meyer: love her or hate her, she taps into something every girl or woman can relate to – what it feels like to be a clumsy teenage girl obsessed with love, either having it or wanting it or missing it, and how badly such girls want a handsome devoted boyfriend with just enough of a bad-boy edge to give life (sorry, bad pun) bite. Even if Bella makes you groan, most of us can remember at least a few times in our teen years when we felt like her.

Relatability + wish fulfillment + vampires are cool = Twilight success.

J.K. Rowling: everybody remembers going to school; how boring it was. Here's a school where you get to learn really fun cool stuff! But the kids still have the same problems – acne, growing pains, first crushes, bullies, mean teachers.

School memories + fun twist = Harry Potter success.

Stephen King: from clowns to haunted houses to school bullies, the master of horror knows in his gut the things that scare people – and the heroes who battle his baddies are always just ordinary people like you and me; people we can relate to.

Relatable people + battle against universal fears = Stephen King's success.

Jackie Collins: the queen of sex-and-shopping books knows that few of the people who read her books are rich enough to buy everything in the world that they want, or lucky enough to have endless romance-novel sex with the world's handsomest men or most beautiful women. But if you can't have it in real life, it's fun to read about.

Wish fulfillment + fantasy = success of Jackie Collins.

James Patterson: brilliant and depraved serial killers fascinate us because we love to peer into the darker corners of human nature – but safely, from the pages of the book. So Patterson serves up Alex Cross plus one Hannibal Lecter after another.

Morbid curiosity + bad side of human nature = success of James Patterson.

All five of these authors, and many more from Suzanne Collins to George R.R. Martin to Sophie Kinsella, have talent because they've figured out how to sell something that people want. Are they also good writers, as well as talented ones? That's a matter of personal opinion. I love Stephen King and J.K. Rowling; can take or leave Stephenie Meyer; don't like Jackie Collins or James Patterson. But I respect them all, even the ones whose writing I can't stand. And I'd kill to be as successful as any of them.

Does this mean that all aspiring authors should toss their love of sci-fi or historical fiction out the window, and rush out to write sex-and-shopping novels or horror knockoffs simply because they sell? No. Writing is a passion as well as a business, and if you write what you don't love, it will be obvious to your readers. There are plenty of second-rate novelists out there, churning out pale copies of Stephen King or J.K. Rowling – and while some might get published, they aren't wheeling their wagonloads of cash to the bank either. You should write what you love, be it space opera or chick lit or sword-and-sandal toga porn.

But read the bestsellers out there and try to figure out why they sell. Try to figure out what people really want to read when they pick up a new book. Try to figure out how to apply that to your own work; how to give your sword-and-sandal toga porn such a unique and relatable spin that you are the one topping the New York Times List. And no more hating on Stephenie Meyer. Even if you loathe her books, give her a tip of your hat. The woman has talent, and we can all learn from that.